rivingtonpike

Hello again

I have been made aware of a site called "thebox.bz". It seems to have all the UK programmes we could ever wish for on there. However, is it legal for one thing? And for another how does it work? Do you have to upload as much as you download? And if so, has anyone done it and how easy is it? We have lots of DVD's in our collection at home which I would be happy to upload if legal, but I have absolutely no idea how to do it. I thought that the vast majority of DVDs are protected in some way from copying.

Anybody's experiences would be much appreciated.

Conal

ray1968

Yes it works and yes you have to maintain a good share ratio (i think its 90%) ...though could be wrong on that part.


If you're concerned about the legalities I would suggest you don't use it. (99.9% of free torrent sites are not legal)

Atlantic Xpat

A tidier and less illegal solution is to sign up for a VPN. (Virtual Private Network) connection that will enable you to have a UK IP address. Then you can watch BBC Iplayer, 4OD etc. Cost around $30 a quarter IIRC.

Partially discharged

I use thebox.bz to view Match of the Day, recent england games for euro qualifying, (although I usually skip over any insightfulcommentary by Mr. Interesting (i.e former England captain), the occasional soap or documentary.

When I started my scoring was something like 15....I'm now up to 77 as I have left shows I have downloaded in 'seeding' mode which helps to bring up the score.

I have no idea how to upload...most of the things on thebox tend to be tv shows and not dvd's.

A poster on another thread on this topic suggested downloading recent soaps even if you have no interest to increase your scoring (which increases your speed I think and it also decreases the lag time you have to wait to download some shows).

Keep in mind how much you are downloading versus what your internet service providor permits in terms of downloading per month for the fee you are paying.

jericho

A similar site to thebox is UKNOVA, where there is no requirement to upload/seed.
EZTV is another good one.

BristolUK

It's actually easy enough to just google "watch (program title)" and find countless sites streaming perfectly decent quality programs without the other issues mentioned.

Often a source will link into another site.

Do that a few times and you'll get used to which ones are reliable.

Occasionally you might need to watch something in smaller segments but not always.

If you're just watching a couple of things a week it's easily done.

Alan2005

In Canada, it is illegal to upload copyright material. Note that with torrents, seeding is exactly the same as uploading. It doesn't matter whether or not you were the person to originally register the file with the torrent tracker or not as while you are seeding the file, you are uploading it to other people who are downloading it. You are doing this even if the file is not yet completely downloaded to your PC.

Downloading is not (currently) illegal (I think this is the third time in 2 days I've posted this). This is one of the reasons why Canada is continually on the US Copyright watch list.

dannyg1001

If membership is full and 'thebox' wont allow you to sign up send me your email address in a private message as I have some invites that i can send which will allow you to become a member!

Almost Canadian

I agree with the above. It is illegal to upload so those that do, do so at their peril.

I was very surprised when I found that downloading is not prohibited in Canada. It is in England and I can see no real justification for it. I can only assume that those that drafted the legislation liked to download

Then there is the issue of travelling to the US with items that may contain such material - don`t want to go there!

rivingtonpike

Just to put the seal on my computer ignorance, what is the difference between "uploading" and "downloading"? How do you know when you are doing either. If I want to watch an episode of something, is it worth the risk of acquiring it free when it could have legal consequences?

Almost Canadian

Downloading is where the file is somewhere else (not on your computer) and you "transfer" a copy of it to your computer.

Uploading is where the file is on your computer and another "transfers" a copy of it to their computer.

If you think of it as making a cassette copy of a CD, downloading would be to make the copy, uploading would be lending your CD so another can copy it.

On the sites discussed above, you will have an option to allow others to access the files on your computer. This will allow uploading to occur. It is more technical than that, but that it is in a basic form.

Alan2005

uploading: sending stuff from your PC to others on internet
downloading: getting stuff from the internet onto your PC (this is what you want to do).

rivingtonpike

OK - thanks for this. Every day, in every way, I'm getting better! And am I right in understanding that to download in Canada is NOT illegal? If so, where can I download UK programmes from successfully? and hopefully safely?

Thanks again everyone....

Alan2005

No idea. Many people just take the risk with torrents and don't even think about it - the risk is probably very low.

Steve_P

I'll won't repeat myself for the second time in two days I'll just provide a link to my post of yesterday.

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showp...4&postcount=57

Correction to my comment regarding bit torrent sites, as Alan rightly said they are illegal.

Most service providers do give you access to Newsnet Newsgroups they just fail to mention it. But if not there are online Newsnet servers that can be accessed for a reasonable fee.